


Home is behind

by Mara (Naldoreth), Naldoreth



Series: Upon the hearth the fire is red [1]
Category: The Lord of the Rings - All Media Types, The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Action/Adventure, Books and movies fusion, But Not Much, Deviates From Canon, Drama, Drama & Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fantasy, Fix-It, Fix-It of Sorts, Getting to Know Each Other, Hate to Love, Humor, Love/Hate, Mild Language, Modern Girl in Middle Earth, Mystery, Overprotective Dwarves, Romance, Slow Build, Slow Burn, Slow Romance, Slow To Update, Stubborn Dwarves, Tenth Walker, Upon the hearth the fire is red series, really slow burn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-25
Updated: 2020-12-13
Packaged: 2021-03-09 22:27:42
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,044
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27713386
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naldoreth/pseuds/Mara, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naldoreth/pseuds/Naldoreth
Summary: Elin Priddy only wanted to go for a walk in the morning. Just some good ol' healthy hiking, having finished a job and needing some fresh air. She planned to be home by supper - but, sometimes, destiny has other plans. Such as for you to end up in the most unlikely of places: Middle Earth. Once she realizes she's not in Wales anymore, Elin will have to decide what to do with her knowledge of this world. Will she help the Fellowship and try to make everything better, or will she step aside and watch as the events unfold in front of her?A known story, once again told: a modern girl falls into Middle Earth and will become the Tenth Walker that sleeps in all of us. How will her story end?
Relationships: Legolas Greenleaf/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Upon the hearth the fire is red [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026933
Comments: 13
Kudos: 30





	1. Trollfight

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Desde aquí hasta mi hogar](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21779128) by [Naldoreth](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Naldoreth/pseuds/Naldoreth). 



> I had a Tenth Walker in me for as long as I can remember, and it was time I gave the story my own twist, after reading everything there was written about it. It's something I wrote originally in Spanish and I'm self-translating, so apologies for any mistakes. It's also something I wrote for my own delight and enjoyment, but I wanted to put it out there for others to enjoy.
> 
> Elin's story will mostly follow the books, but I will try to intertwine everything with the best bits and pieces of Jackson's movies adaptations. It may also sliiiightly deviate from canon - in the future. I write this from the bottom of my heart and with the most utter respect for J.R.R. Tolkien's work.
> 
> If you've enjoyed it, comments are always nice! And if you hate it, well, you know how to get out from here!

* * *

**Prologue:**

**Trollfight**

* * *

Nothing could be heard for miles around. Nothing except the pounding of the rain on the ground, the thunder rumbling through the mountains like two stone trolls fighting for their territory — and Elin’s panting and ragged breathing. She was forcing her way across the mountain road as if she could still see it, although the truth was that she hadn’t known where she was going for an hour. Not since the beginning of that blasted storm, which seemed to be God’s way to punish them for their sins — again. The path traced on the ground had soon become a mudflat, and her cell phone wouldn't find a GPS signal to point her way even if it danced naked on her face.

_ I should have stayed where I was _ , she chided to herself.  _ Although, if I hadn't moved, I'd probably be buried in mud by now. _

She cursed the weather forecasts that had announced a cool, sunny day, and which had convinced her to go hiking that Sunday. It had been a long time since she had enjoyed a day in the wild, and after two weeks cooped up at home working on her latest project she thought she could use the fresh air.

Of course, the gale blowing in her ears that sounded like the beating of some giant eagle batting its wings was not the light refreshing breeze she had imagined when packing her backpack. All she wore to protect herself from the elements was an electric blue raincoat and a gray scarf that was older than the sun, and both were highly insufficient to fight the fucking Flood 2.0.

“Where the hell is that eagle rock thing?” she mumbled, tired of hearing nothing but the rain. It was a mistake, of course, because she still only heard the wind and all she accomplished was filling her mouth with water despite being almost completely bent over.

The  _ eagle rock thing _ was an enormous rocky wall full of eagles' nests, one of the most emblematic places of the mountain range and a visual reference point for hikers, Sunday-goers and forest guards. However, with the darkness the clouds brought and the water fogging everything, she had long been unable to see beyond her nose. She believed to be walking in the right direction, but she could not be sure.

_ This is what I get for exercising _ , she thought, bitterly.

Soaked to the bone, lost and completely terrified, the only thing keeping her sane was her own sarcasm. And even that didn't last long, because as she began to realise that perhaps it would be better to stop, lay down and wait for it to abate, she stepped on something she shouldn't have and slipped, utterly losing her balance and rolling down the hill.

The scream never left her throat. She tried to hold on to the mountain wall and nailed her fingers to the ground, but it fell off under her weight. She scratched, waved and tried to grab something solid, but the whole slope seemed determined to take her all the way down. A torrent of water from a nearby creek, grown by the rain, suddenly hit her on the left side of her head. For a few seconds the whole world spun around in an annoying whistle, and then there was silence and darkness.


	2. Another trip with the scouts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lost in the mountains and surprisingly alive, Elin wonders where the hell she's at and how long will it take for a bear to eat her alive. It shouldn't be so hard to find civilization, but everywhere she looks there's only trees, bushes and more _trees_. One thing is clear - if she's dead, Heaven sucks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Check Elin’s board at Pinterest or listen to the playlist for the fic at Spotify.

* * *

**Chapter 1:**

**Another trip with the scouts**

* * *

When Elin opened her eyes, she knew she was dead. At least she had to be after that fall. Death was the only thing that would explain why there was no trace of the storm, why the ground she was lying on was completely dry, and why she had been able to open her eyes. She blinked a couple of times, trying to process all the information her senses were bombarding her with. The colors were so sharp and bright that it looked like someone had installed a _Skyrim_ mod on her brain, which reinforced her theory that she was dead and this was Heaven.

 _Colors ain’t so sharp on earth_ , she thought.

Next sense that woke up was _pain_. She consciously knew that pain wasn’t a sense, but she was hurting so much that she couldn’t focus on anything else. She tried to stand on her side, holding back a whimper. She closed her eyes tightly, hoping that the whiplash on her spine would stop hurting. Her legs felt like they were made of lead, and at the same time she felt as if hundreds of needles had been stuck in her body just to screw with her. By trying to move, two things became clear: one was that she wasn’t dead, or else Heaven was a huge scam; and the other one, much more relieving, was that she wasn’t gravely injured by the fall. Since she wasn’t dead, she preferred to have full mobility in her body, _thank you very much_ , and after slowly checking that she could move legs, feet, arms, hands and head, she let out a restrained sigh.

It was possible that she had broken something, but none of it was the spine. That was enough for her.

Elin stopped trying to move and started listening. The only sounds were the whispering of the wind through the trees, some small stone bouncing against the ground as it fell from the hillside, and her own breathing. There was no sign of the storm, the gale or the sound of the wheels of the cyclists who used to go out on Sundays. Maybe the storm didn’t kill her but it could have ended the rest of the world. Back at home she had been reading a book about a woman who was alone in the world, and if that was what was going to happen to her, she wished she had already finished it.

When she saw that no one was approaching and that she hadn’t lost any senses (the smell of earth was unmistakable), she decided it was as good a time as any to get up. Little by little Elin managed to lie on her side and, like her uncle Alfie when he got up from a long nap, she stood up with difficulty and put her hand on her lower back.

"Ouch," she complained quietly.

She stretched carefully each and every muscle in her aching body, checking with some surprise that nothing was broken, just very bruised.

" _This_ is the real miracle," she muttered.

Elin looked around, bewildered. She didn't understand anything about what happened. Given the torrent of water that had dragged her and the meters of slope that she saw above her, she should be shattered in a pool of mud. However, even though it was quite cold and the clouds were swirling around the sun, there was no sign of the storm that had brought her there. Even her clothes were dry.

"How many days have I been lying here?" Elin wondered in horror. "And where the hell _is_ here?"

She turned around to inspect the place. From the position of the sun it seemed to be past noon, so she either had been unconscious for half a day or she had been here for a day and a half. The storm had raged a little before lunch, which explained the acute pain in her stomach: she was starving. She was next to the mountain wall, surrounded by twisted trees that grew in search of the sun. The landscape seemed much wilder than she remembered from her walks on the mountain, and also younger. There was no sign of the Eagle's Nest, but who knew where it was by then.

"It’ll take another miracle for someone to find me here."

Once Elin was convinced that there wasn’t anything else to find if she stayed there, she sat down carefully on the ground and took off her backpack, resting her back against the rock wall. The backpack looked as bruised as she was, but just as intact. She opened the outer pocket, hoping that neither the fall nor the water had wreaked havoc on her phone, but she should have guessed that this was too difficult a miracle to perform. When she pulled it out, she saw that the screen was shattered, and no matter how hard she held down the power button, nothing happened.

"Shit," she blurted out, "that's good."

Elin grunted in frustration, holding back the urge to scream for help. Provoking an avalanche wouldn't do her any good, and Elin was nothing but pragmatic. So she took a few deep breaths, closed her eyes for a moment, and when she opened them again she went through her backpack, methodically taking out and checking her belongings.

Her backpack was small and she didn't carry more than what was necessary, since her plan had been to be home by supper. Besides the now useless phone, she carried a small first aid kit that was only slightly dented; a portable charger that was now deadweight, a bottle of water that still had half of it left, a very old cap, a toilet bag with sun cream, lip balm, some hair bands, a brush, some pads and tampons and several drugs, a small flashlight, tissues, a lighter; some plastic bags, a notebook with a pen and her wallet. She still had some snacks, which seemed to be in good condition when she smelled them, and a few bags of nuts and energy bars. They wouldn't last many days, one full day at most if rationed.

Elin missed her pocket knife, a gift from her grandad, which she used to carry around when she was younger. She had lost it years ago and hadn’t had the heart to replace it, but it would have come in handy. She still wore the scarf around his neck, in addition to the raincoat, and was grateful that the clothes she wore were light and breathable and that they retained the heat — she was quite comfortable and light, but at least she was sure that she wouldn’t freeze if she had to spend the night out.

With those thoughts in mind, she broke off half of the sandwich and slowly chewed it, calming the voracious hunger that had suddenly sinked in.

"Don’t worry, Elin. Think of it as one more trip with the scouts," she told herself, trying to cheer up. "Even if you only lasted two years in the group".

The knot in her stomach threatened to keep her from eating in peace, so she took another deep breath and tried hard not to think about the situation she was in until she had enough strength to face it. She tried to remember the survival lessons she received in her childhood that had never helped her. She didn’t last long with the scouts. It wasn’t her thing, but she took away many pearls of knowledge that she thought were useless, a few badges that she still kept in a box under her bed, and her love of nature. Hiking was one of her favourite pastimes, one of the few things that kept her fit and forced her to leave home. If it weren't for her need to hike every few weeks, she could spend months cooped up working from home and reading in her spare time. Books were her passion, so much so that not only she translated them for her job, she also devoured them....

"And now I can't even read the one I brought on my phone," she mumbled, chewing her sandwich.

She sipped her water, little by little as not to upset her stomach, and took another deep breath. Elin went again through what she knew of the situation: she was somewhere in the Cambrian Mountains, hopefully near Rhayader, her hometown. It was the middle of September and it was cold, although considerably less than it had been that morning when she left home. Since she lived alone and had already sent her last book, no one would notice her absence until several days later, so if she wanted to get out of there safely she would have to do it herself.

"This is what I get for not leaving a note for the neighbor," she told herself.

She ran her hand through her hair, tangled and dirty with mud.

"Ugh."

Sighing, Elin took the brush out of her bag and undid her ponytail. It took a while, but little by little she tamed her ginger curls, feeling a little cleaner. She put the brush away, adjusted her scarf and stood up carefully, putting her backpack on her shoulder.

"Thank goodness I like walking".

Two hours later, the last light disappeared and night fell over her. Elin looked at the sky in wonder, waiting for the moon to show up, but she might have been unconscious for longer than she thought ‘cause it was nowhere to be seen. She was sure that night was a full moon.

"Things can't be easy, no," she thought, miserably, stumbling for the fifth time over a root she hadn't seen in the shitty light of her flashlight. The beam was so dim it barely reached the ground, so she had to walk hunched over if she wanted to see _anything_.

Elin was going parallel to the hillside, hoping to find something useful or familiar. So far she hadn't been lucky, and hunger and tiredness were beginning to take a toll on her. When she stumbled for the sixth time and was about to eat dirt, she gave up. She lit up her surroundings, looking for a tree strong enough to climb for fear that, during the night, some wild animal would attack her.

_I don't know of any wildlife in the area, but I don't think I'll give them the chance._

She found one that looked comfortable and climbed as far as she could to one of the branches, holding the flashlight with her mouth and trying her best not to gag. When she finally reached the branch, she managed to move her backpack to her chest and rested against the tree trunk. Elin used the scarf to tie herself to the branch as well as she could.

"It’d be better to be tied to the trunk, but it’s something".

She was sweating, hungry and freezing by the time she finished settling in; and she had to restrain herself not to gulf down the remaining of her sandwich. She saved some for the following day and ate some nuts, drinking a little water to wash everything down her dry throat. Tomorrow she would have to leave the mountain wall if she didn't find help, and start going down looking for water.

"Where there’s water, there’s civilization," she said to herself.

The thought was not entirely comforting, but it helped her drift off. 

She woke up at dawn, if _waking up_ was the right term when you've spent the night practically awake. When the sun rose over the mountain wall she decided to stop pretending to be asleep and, with a deep sigh, untied herself and carefully walked down. Although the night had passed relatively peacefully, with no animals lurking under her tree waiting to eat her as she had feared, Elin had barely been able to rest. The fear of falling was too strong, so she had simply nodded off and on every few hours. Once she put her feet on the ground, slightly shaking, she stretched out her numb muscles and pulled out the bag of nuts, which was emptying at a dangerously fast rate.

The so-called breakfast gave her some strength and, throwing her backpack once more, she left the hillside to go down.

"I better find water soon".

Water, food or, better yet, people. Someone to give her a steaming cup of tea and call her a cab. Roads, civilization, cars and pollution. 

"I’d kill to see a factory," she muttered ironically. "I've had enough nature to last me a lifetime."

Her pleas, however, were not answered by any deity. Elin walked for hours, stumbling under the sun one step closer to dehydration with each passing minute, for her water had run out shortly after she came down from the tree. She noticed her weak legs and a dry mouth, feeling as if she had licked an ashtray, but refused to stop. Noon came and left without a single body of water in sight, whether it be a lake, a river or a simple spring. She couldn't have gone far enough from Elan to reach the Claerwen reserve, let alone leave it behind unnoticed. How on Earth hadn't she found some goddamn water already?

Elin tried to fight the hunger by distracting herself, looking at the landscape and inspecting every leaf and every stone she left behind. By mid-afternoon, however, the rest of her now hard and dry snacks were gone and by the time night fell she was desperate, dehydrated, hungry and very frightened. Tears welled up in her eyes every time she thought of her home, her friends and her uncle Alfie, the only family member left alive. Although they didn't see each other often, her disappearance would take a toll on him.

Her life was not a very exciting one, but it was good enough for her. At 28 she had a more or less stable job, a couple of friends in town to go out with from time to time and a few more friends online, who lived too far away to meet very often. She lived in her old house, which she had inherited from her parents, and devoted her time to what she loved most: literature. To others, her life may have seemed boring, but it was enough for her. She liked living in Rhayader, and although she sometimes missed her teenage dreams of traveling the world, she settled for what she had.

"If I go home, I will never complain again that Mrs. Delawney's cock wakes me up at dawn," she swore, hugging her knees as she sat down against a tree. 

She didn't even bother to take refuge, and fell asleep almost immediately. 

  
  


The next morning was exactly the same as the day before, and so was the next. She woke up at dawn, lying on the ground and completely numb. After peeing behind a bush, she set off again, stumbling from exhaustion and eating the last of her nuts along the way. The rest of the hours mixed together, with the growing panic that she would die there, alone and devoured by wild animals, clouding her brain. She tried to chase away those thoughts, focusing on survival as her only goal: she had to go on, no matter what.

Hours passed in a fog, blurred together, and Elin went on by pure survival instinct. She was dizzy and disoriented, and when she finally stopped to rest her body screamed for her not to get up again.

"At least, if I stay here and wait for my death, I won't get tired anymore," she reasoned among the fog that clouded her brain, like cotton candy wrapping her mind.

She sat for a long time, so long that it seemed like hours, although it could have been minutes, listening to the sounds of the forest. Her stomach had stopped roaring a while ago, so all she could hear was the chirping of birds, the steps of small animals running over the fallen autumn leaves, the whispers of trees as they swayed in the wind and the murmur of water, which flowed not far from where she was sitting. She stayed, enjoying the ambiance for the first time, and closed her eyes.

 _I'm gonna have to get up and pee if I keep listening to the water,_ she thought, distracted. _W_ _ater!_

Her eyes shot wide open.

"Water!" she croaked.

Several birds flew from their hideouts when she jumped to her feet, almost falling over due to the dizziness. Elin tried to calm her thoughts and focus on what she could hear. Where was the sound coming from? She moved quietly to where it sounded the loudest, and after several meters, she finally saw it: a river. She ran towards it as best she could and, by the time she reached the shore, she dropped to her knees in despair, practically sinking her face in the cold water. After several hasty drinks she had to stop to cough and breathe, and urged her brain to calm down.

"Take it a notch down, Elin," she said to herself, trying to take a deep breath. "The water isn't going anywhere."

Somewhat calmer after quenching her initial thirst, she filled the bottle with water and emptied it several times over the course of an hour. She was still hungry, but at least the feeling of weakness and dizziness had slightly subsided. With her mind somewhat clearer, she searched the riverbank for fruits or something that seemed edible. First she found some suspicious mushrooms but, after a while, she found what looked like a blackberry bush. She tasted one to check if it was edible and waited for a bit, her stomach rumbling despite the berry’s awfully bitter taste. Nothing happened, so she took a few more of them to wash in the river and ate them one by one, careful not to choke on them or upset her stomach any further. Although it was still daylight, she decided to camp then and there.

The night passed peacefully, which proved that the berries weren’t toxic, and before leaving again she filled one of the zip bags with a good handful of clean berries. 

Now, all Elin had to do was follow the river and at some point she would find civilization.

"There has to be something out here."

Following the river was fairly easy, although walking down the wet ground was tricky. Luckily the weather was being quite benevolent for Wales in autumn, so she didn't have to worry about lighting a fire to get warm. Having drinking water gave her the strength to continue, and she was grateful to be able to wash her face a little and get rid of some of the dirt she carried. However, after two more days of following the course of the river and feeding on nothing more than the berries nearby, her strength was starting to dwindle.

She had lost track of time, but she had been in the open for almost a week and she knew, deep in her heart, that she didn’t have it in her to survive for much longer. On one occasion she had tried to fish something in the river, but she had nothing but her naked hands, not even a spear, and all she got was wet to her knees.

"All I need now is to catch a cold and die of pneumonia," she mumbled, drying herself well with the scarf before getting dressed again.

She laid it down on a rock to dry and sat miserably on a patch of dry ground. She felt completely defeated. No matter how much she stuck to the river, she was about to starve to death. She could no longer feed on blackberries, and she felt that she had less and less energy to continue.

"I knew my uncle Alfie would bury us all," she told a nearby tree. The branches leaned towards her as if the tree was paying attention.

She giggled out of her nose, making a very undignified noise, and a couple of leaves fell from the tree. It almost seemed as if it was laughing with her.

"At least I have a good audience for my shitty jokes," she gurgled.

Silence fell in the forest and Elin bit her lower lip, holding back the sudden urge to cry. She got up as best she could and went over to her new friend, sitting against its trunk, and hugged her knees. She did not remember being so frightened since her parents passed away, ten years ago; nor so alone. She didn’t care what happened anymore. With her head between her knees, Elin allowed herself to cry as she hadn’t done for many years.

She cried herself to sleep, and did not hear the footsteps that hovered over her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A deeper look into Elin as she fights for survival - or waits until the Reaper comes for her, whatever comes first. This chapter was a bit slow, but I hope you liked it anyway! I certainly loved writing and translating it. So, what did you think? Who's approaching? A BEAR? Who knows!
> 
> Leave a comment, I love reading you <3 Stay safe and Merry Christmas to y'all!

**Author's Note:**

> This was just a small prologue. First chapter coming soon!
> 
> Cheers everyone, and stay safe!


End file.
